Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Seguin named OHL's best player

The Ontario Hockey League announced that Plymouth Whalers center Tyler Seguin has been named the recipient of the Red Tilson Trophy as the league’s Most Outstanding Player during the regular season.

Seguin beat out fellow finalists Taylor Hall of Windsor and Nazem Kadri of London in voting conducted by OHL media and broadcasters.

“It’s not about just being a player, it’s also about being a total person,” OHL commissioner David Branch (pictured above) said about Seguin. “Tyler’s clearly a champion, both on and of the ice.”

Seguin is the top-rated North American prospect listed by the National Hockey League’s Central Scouting Bureau for the upcoming 2010 NHL Entry Draft, held June 25-26 in Los Angeles.

Seguin, 18, scored 48 goals with 58 assists 106 points in 63 games and shared the OHL’s scoring title with Hall. In Seguin’s 63 games played, he contributed directly to over 46 percent of the Whalers offense.

“Tyler’s off-ice work has been exceptional this season,” said Plymouth coach-GM Mike Vellucci. “He’s a very mature player and mature person and that’s a credit to his parents (Jackie and Paul Seguin). He’s always willing to help out anyone on the team or anyone that’s part of the franchise. In terms of his conditioning, he’s one of the most committed players I’ve ever seen. He strives to be the best player he can possibly be and not just in games.

“It all started from the first time we practiced at the start of the year. He worked extremely hard in practice. (In games) he was committed to scoring goals, or beating an opponent one-on-one, or improving his defensive play. One of the best things I can say is that Tyler is a hockey player – he’s not just a player who happens to play hockey. He’s an ultimate professional.”

Seguin was named the Whalers' Regular Season Most Valuable Player and Regular Season Leading Scorer and was named Smartest Player, Best Playmaker, second best Stickhandler, and second (tie) Most Dangerous in the Goal Area in the OHL’s Western Conference Coaches Poll.

“I’m very proud and humble to be accepting this award today,” said Seguin. “It’s a very exciting day for me and my family.”

Seguin was named the OHL Player of the Month for both December and January. He also was named Canadian Hockey League Player of the Week and OHL Player of the Week for the period of January 18-24 and OHL Player of the Week for the period of October 5-11.

Seguin participated in a number of all-star competitions for the Canadian Hockey League during the season. He played for the OHL All-Stars in November against Russia in the Canada/Russia Subway Super Series. He was captain for Team Orr in the 2010 Home Hardware CHL-NHL Top Prospects Game in Windsor in January and also represented the Western Conference in the OHL All-Star game in Kingston in February.

Besides the CHL events, Seguin represented Canada while leading the Memorial of Ivan Hlinka Tournament in scoring with four goals and six assists in four games to capture a gold medal in August. He also attended Canada's World Junior selection camp for the World Junior Championships in December.

In two seasons with Plymouth, Seguin has scored 69 goals with 104 assists for 173 points in 124 games and is 18th on the Whalers all-time scoring list.

Seguin is the third player in franchise history to win the Red Tilson Trophy, joining Pat Peake (1992-93) and David Legwand (1997-98).

The Red Tilson Trophy is voted by sports writers and broadcasters in the OHL. The award is in honor of Albert “Red” Tilson, who was killed in action in Europe during World War II. Tilson was the OHA scoring champion for the 1942-43 season after scoring 19 goals and 38 assists for 57 points in 22 games with the Oshawa Generals.

In voting, players received five points for a first-place selection, three points for a second-place selection and one point for a third-place selection.

Last season, Cody Hodgson of Brampton received 161 points in the voting process ahead of John Tavares of London, who received 115 points as runner-up.

Seguin will be formally presented with the Red Tilson Trophy, along with the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy as the co-winner of the league's Top Scorer, at the 2009-10 OHL Awards Ceremony set for Wednesday June 9 at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. He will also be the OHL’s nominee for Most Outstanding Player at the Canadian Hockey Leauge Annual Awards.